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Greg Ip provides useful insights into the nature of the economic recovery in Britain compared to the U.S. by 2015. The recovery in Britain has done better than in the U.S. in job creation, but has lagged behind in productivity gains. The labor force participation rate is 72% in Britain compared to 68% in the U.S., going back up to 2007 levels in Britain, whereas in the U.S. it has steadily declined with some older working class Americans too discouraged to look for work and left behind. Stagnant wage growth is a major issue in Britain, more so than in the U.S. where wage growth is slow. Economic austerity is not the main cause of the economic difficulties as the coalition government of prime minister Cameron relaxed earlier goals for austerity by 2012 with tax revenues and growth below forecasts. The structural budget deficit has been reduced by 6.6% of GDP since the peak, and the Office of Budget Responsibility estimates the UK economy was 1.5%-2% smaller by 2013 because of the austerity policies. Britain was also affected by the eurozone crisis to a larger degree than the U.S. Productivity remains a long term challenge- with needed investments in housing, education and infrastructure, improved lending for new business, and higher tech improvement exports....

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Bachelet was president from 2006-2010 with high popularity ratings. She was reelected in 2014.

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In a conversation before an audience at the IMF on May 6, 2015, U.S. Federal Reserve chairwoman, Janet Yellen, says about stock market valuations in early 2015- "I would highlight that equity market valuations at this point are generally quite high. Not so high when you compare returns on equity to returns on safe assets like bonds, which are also very low, but there are potential dangers there." She was responding to a question from IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on whether the Fed's low rate policies were creating a bubble in financial markets. S&P 500 company earnings for the 1st quarter- with 417 companies having reported results- show earnings growth of 0.2%, according to FactSet. The Dow Jones Average is up 0.1%, and the S&P 500 up 1%, for the year. Yellen said about financial stability- "Risks to financial stability are moderated, not elevated at this point. There was a great deal we missed before the crisis, I believe we are better prepared." The preparation includes the stress tests and higher capital requirements being set by the Fed to ensure banks can cope with losses, and the living wills arrangement for too-big-to-fail companies. Yellen conveyed her own sense of the proper role of the financial sector and the role of the Federal Reserve in promoting that role for social, economic and technological progress, in a clear and insightful manner- " A well-functioning financial sector promotes job creation, innovation and inclusive economic growth. But when the incentives facing financial firms are distorted, these firms may act in ways that can harm society. Appropriate regulation, coupled with vigilant supervision, is essential to address these issues."...

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Different strategies pursued by BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto in 2015 as the mining boom cools off.

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The Georgetwon University Center on Education and the Workforce 2015 report shows the different college majors, annual wages and lifetime earnings based on Census Bureau data. Engineering comes first, followed by computers. Advanced graduate degrees make a large difference in earnings in health sciences. A lot depends on the standing in the class with top 25% of the class in finance having much higher earnings. A lot also depends on the individual. Employment opportunities may be lacking even if annual wages are high, as in architecture.

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Daniel Zhang takes over as CEO from Jonathan Lu in May 2014. Jack Ma, executive chairman, says a post 70's generation is now taking over at the company. Alibaba revenues increased to $2.77 billion, with per share earnings before stock grants increasing by 7% to 48 cents per share, and earnings after stock grants declining 49% to $463 million or 18 cents a share. 2015 1st quarter results showed mobile transactions making up 51%, up from 27% a year earlier. Active users on mobile platforms were 289 million in March 2015, increasing from 163 million the prior year. The mobile monetization rate is decreasing to 1.73%- this is the metric of how much in transaction value becomes company revenue. Share price went up 10% to $88.15 from $80 in pre-market trading on May 7, 2015. Its IPO offering price was $68, and the high reached was $120.

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Steinbeck describes a universal truth in the way human beings respond to long periods of agricultural plenty in wet years followed by the dry years and drought. In the economic crises such as the boom and bust years in the economy of countries people tend to forget about the rich years during a bust, and in the wet years or boom years "lose all memory" of the devastation wrought during the dry years. Some are seared by the dry years, as Jill Ker Conway, as she describes leaving the western plains of New South Wales, Australia, where she lost her father years before in an extended drought. She describes her story in "The Road from Coorain." She is looking for the dry years for a final parting years later and only finds a wet period. Yet she remembers everything that happened here in the drought years. In 2006-2007 thousands of farmers on the western plains of New South Wales and Victoria suffered a drought that lasted 11 years in a row. Jill Ker lost her father in 1944 in the drought that started in 1941....